Phantom Princess
by Bookworm Hopes
Summary: As he stood there, dumbfounded, he followed the enigmatical shadow with his crimson fiery eyes. It had long free golden brown hair that flows elegantly, waving at the twilight's breeze beautifully. Wearing a night gown, almost transparent white silhouette, it ran slowly but surely and entered the pristine clock tower. He witnessed it, the phantom princess. (UNDER REVISION)
1. THE PHANTOM PRINCESS

I disclaim Gakuen Alice.

 **Primary Chapter**

 **THE PHANTOM PRINCESS**

 **"During the day, I don't believe in ghosts. At night, I'm a little more open-minded."**

As he stood there, dumbfounded, he followed the enigmatical shadow with his crimson fiery eyes. He did not blinked, neither did he continued to breath as if there is some obstruction in his lungs and as well as if his heart stopped beating. He kept an eye upon the shadow, scampering through the dark pathway making its way to the mysterious clock tower.

He noted it; observed its features as the moon illuminated the open space. It had long free golden brown hair that flows elegantly, waving at the twilight's breeze beautifully. Wearing a night gown, almost transparent white silhouette, it ran slowly but surely and entered the structure. He witnessed it, the phantom princess.

 **Four hours earlier…**

 _Do you know? There was a rumor about a ghost wandering at the pristine clock tower in the Southern Forest._

 _They said that the ghost wears a bloody and torn white dress! According to them, it kills students who dare to enter its domicile!_

 _I heard that the ghost has scary hypnotizing eyes! If you stare at its eyes, you'll surely get hypnotized and it will make you do something horrible!_

 _That ghost, it's creeping me up. From now on I will never dare to step my feet nor my shadow to the Southern Forest. I heard from some high school students who were conducting a research there saw the ghost with their own eyes! It even talked to them with its frightening voice!_

 _The hair of the ghost is very long and it can tie your whole body up and then it will kill you just by glaring at you!_

 _The phantom princess is back!_

"Hey, Ruka. What's with all these people?" Natsume asked his best friend, walking on the hallways of the middle school building towards the cafeteria.

Ruka is ruffling his white bunny's puffy white fur before freeing it from him. "They're talking about the ghost."

Natsume's eyebrow twitched. "What ghost?"

"You don't know about it? The whole academy's been so hooked up with the rumor for quite a time now." he said, both of them had arrived at the cafeteria and entered inside.

Natsume lead the way and sat on their usual spot, the one closest to the door. "It's not my kind to listen to rumors." he then pulled the chair and sat onto it.

Ruka did the same with the chair opposite to Natsume's. "I don't know, but I've seen a photograph of it from the academy's newspaper. It was blurred."

"And you bought it?" the raven head asked, waving at the robot chef of the cafeteria. It went to them in just a snap and got their order. "Riceball, Ruka?"

Ruka nodded. "That's fine with me. And please add some miso soup. I haven't eaten properly for days. Thanks to those fan girls." Ruka got goose bumps by the time he said fan girls.

"You heard him." Natsume said to the robot which headed back to the counter. "So, do you believe it?" he leaned his elbow to the white table cloth covering the wooden furniture and rested his chin on the palm of his hand.

"No, I didn't. We might not know, it could be a student's doing. But…whatever, I don't really know." Ruka answered, flipping the napkin cloth and placing it neatly on his lap. "Speaking of that ghost, I heard it was called the phantom princess."

Natsume smirked. "Phantom princess, huh?"

Ruka shrugged. "Yeah. That phantom princess is quite popular ever since we came here at the academy. That's why others said she was back."

"What are you saying?" The robot arrived having their order placed on a silver tray. It served the food with its twisters-like metallic hand to their table and nodded before it left. Natsume handed the miso soup to Ruka.

Ruka thanked him. "According to some newspapers I read on the library, the phantom princess started to be seen a year before we enrolled in Gakuen Alice."

"Since when did you read a newspaper?" Natsume asked, biting some from his riceball.

"It just fell from the floor when I came there to read a zoology book." he replied.

"They really love telling stories, aren't they?" Natsume said in between chews.

Ruka just moaned and continued to eat his lunch. He noticed Natsume turned silent and seemed to be gathering his senses together. "What's wrong?" he asked him.

Natsume got his half eaten riceball and stood up. "Let's go, Ruka. Those girls have found us." he whispered and started to walk away.

"No, no, no! Not again." Ruka muttered, his miso soup wasn't even moved. "I'm starving."

"Come on, Ruka. You can eat some later. But now we have to save ourselves."

"Natsume-kuuuuuuuuuun!" the girls were screaming his name. "Ruka-kuuuuuuuuuuun!" they were yelling at him.

"Oh, shit! They're here! Hurry, Ruka!" Natsume grabbed his arm and pulled him, they ran for their lives together.

Natsume Hyuuga and Ruka Nogi. The two most popular guys and chased by fan girls. They hated them all. But as they tell them they are not interested with girls, the more they became aggressive. If at first they only faint by the time they saw them, now they were chasing them and when they got a grip of them, they will experience hell. Uniforms were torn, hair was ruined, and necks were full of kiss marks. In short, they were harassed.

It all started when they were forcibly joined in a stage play by Narumi Anju in their elementary days. Of course he's a sensei, so it's rude to disagree. And Narumi can make people do anything he wants, because of his Human Inclination Pheromone Alice. So to save themselves from his Alice, they still joined the play even if they don't like it. That event triggered those girls to establish their own fan club and chase them everywhere they will go. Plus the advertisements from Hotaru Imai's photographs, their popularity went under growth spurt. They cannot eat properly, they cannot roam around alone. Their lives lost peace.

"Wait, Natsume. I can't take it." Ruka yelled his name. They stopped running because the blonde lost energy, and his stamina is not as strong as Natsume's. He pants on his knees, sweat pouring on his forehead.

Natsume leaned his back on a tree. "Damn. We don't deserve this. We've been running for hours."

Ruka chuckled at him, still on his knees. "I guess we can't do anything about it, can we?"

Natsume smirked and turned back, his hands on his pocket. "Come, Ruka. We have to hide." he said, started to take a step. When he had few steps from the tree he leaned earlier, he heard Ruka yell.

"Natsume!"

The fire caster looked back, eyes dilated and worried. "Ruka!" he called him. The fan girls caught him! He can see how aggressive they were as they grip on Ruka's uniform and started to play tug of war with Ruka as the rope. He was angry, but Ruka told him he can handle everything and he must run for himself.

"Don't worry about me! Run!" Ruka yelled, he started to activate his Alice and then bats started to fly towards him, but before those bats reached his place to scare all those fan girls away he fainted because of hunger and tiredness.

Natsume run until he can't feel his feet. He mentally apologised to Ruka for he cannot use his Alice on them to save him. So instead, he trusted his best friend and left.

 **At the moment…**

It was already dark, the moon was out and the stars began to fill the sky. He found himself panting in the middle of the forest. He wonders what forest he'd been, Northern? No, he didn't saw Mr. Bear's cottage in there. Western? No, not at all. He didn't pass through the Central Town. How about the Eastern woods? Never, he is still forbidden to enter the high school vicinity and he came from there.

There's one choice left, he's inside the Southern Woods. What? Is he feeling somewhat afraid with the rumors spreading in the Southern Forest? Is the cold breeze adding to the creeps? Of course not, he is Natsume after all.

But there is something wrong with this forest. It's too silent here. Too quiet that the silence is already deafening. The phantom princess entered the fire caster's mind, he created an image of her with the ideas he gathered with the gossips he heard. He walked more, not out of the forest but deeper. He saw a pebble, and played with it. He continuously kicks it in every direction it goes, just following the direction it will give him.

He kicked it again, it went to the left. He kicked it once more, and it went straight. Again and again. The clouds suddenly covered the moon, darkness ate the whole area. He stopped moving. Natsume gathered all his senses and feel his surroundings.

Swish! He felt something moved there. He turned to it, lit his hand with a fire for a guide. As Natsume's fire began to gloom in the dark, he continued to kick the pebble for one last time. He searched for it, and was about to pick it up when his fire suddenly went gone. Gone with a flash of wind, a wind or not, whatever it is. He felt chills, quickly electrified his spine.

He stood straight, the cloud was almost over the moon, and it made him see a bit rather than before. He saw the clock tower, old and pristine. He looked up to see the whole structure. But his crimson eyes were snatched by a moving shadow.

He was dumbfounded; he followed the enigmatical shadow with his eyes. He did not blink as his eyes were directed to the shadow alone. Natsume adjusted his vision to have a clearer view of the _thing_. He kept his eye upon the shadow, scampering through the dark pathway making its way to the mysterious clock tower. Is it just himself? Is she panting, she pant so loud. Never did he encounter a ghost that pants, and wait. Is she running? If she's really a ghost, she would have flown instead.

He noted it, observed its features as the moon illuminated the open space, the cloud finally left the moon making him see the supposed to be ghost a bit clearly. It had long free golden brown hair that flows elegantly, waving at the twilight's breeze beautifully. Wearing a night gown, almost transparent white silhouette, it ran slowly but surely and entered the structure. He witnessed it, the phantom princess.

The phantom princess opened the clock tower's door with ease, as if she owns the structure and had her own key for it. He's not sure if she saw him, but he's definitely sure he saw her. Natsume didn't waste a second; he made his way towards the tower. He didn't care if she really kills and harms people. But one thing was for sure with what he witnessed. That phantom princess is not a ghost.

He touched the carvings on the large wooden door. It really is old base on the dull color of the wood itself and the rust on the metal knockers. He grabbed the knocker, but it moved open. The phantom princess must've left it open.

"What am I doing." he muttered softly to himself, letting the metal thing from his hand.

THUD. He heard something inside. He unknowingly opened the door and peeked inside. The door cracked open, sounds were created and he waited for something to happen. To his fortune, nothing occurred.

He made a small fireball and made it fly before him. Natsume searched for a light switch, but he found nothing. Suddenly, his fire went null and it's a bit surprising since he did not even felt the slightest wind.

"Who's there?" Natsume asked in the middle of the pitch dark tower. No one replied. He then made another ball of fire before anything will make him trip on his feet. He waited for his fire to disappear again but nothing like that happened until he found book racks. Lots of book racks, big and wide wooden book racks.

The fire caster walked closer to the racks, seeing they're all filled with different categories and colors of books, various sizes and topics. He got one, a dusty red big book. He brought his fire to him, letting him see the title. But it was a surprise, there's no title carved on the cover of the book. He opened it, the first, second and the succeeding pages were all blank. No ink can be seen there, no letters and images printed inside.

He continued to flip some pages, and to his surprise something glowing flew from one of its pages. He groaned, pocketed his hands and followed the glowing thing. It flew like it has its own mind making him go after it and dragged him to the stairs. He hesitated to take the step at first, but he heard a sniff from up. It made him feel so curious that he almost ran to reach the peak.

"These stairs seems endless." he talked to himself again. He's been climbing for five minutes but he was still far from the peak.

Suddenly, when he's halfway there the glowing light vanished. It ended up falling like speck of glitters and fully disappeared in the air.

What does it want to tell to him? To continue climbing or to back out? The former seems to be more appropriate for him to do since he's not some scaredy cat. He snickered and climbed faster until he was a step farther from his destination.

He was kind of frustrated when he saw nothing. Even so, he scanned the area and it looked like an attic. An empty attic with large windows that lights up half of the territory. He searched for any suspicious object, but it was real empty. Only rugged linoleum and spider webs on the corner of the roof. He wonders where does the sound he was hearing came from, and where did the phantom princess went.

He muttered a "Hn." and turned around to the stairs, but his crimson eyes went wide when a face booed in front of him. His inner soul almost escaped his body. He jumped back and aimed the figure a fire, but by the time it landed on the unknown image his fire Alice was distinguished.

"Huh? How did it…" he said. The figure began to move near him, walking slowly out from the dark shadows, nearer to him. "Hey, don't come near me." Natsume warned, taking a step back for her every step forward. But she didn't stop.

He saw feet, real small but dirty and muddy feet. As the figure went closer, the moon's shine illuminated its features from toes to head. He cannot believe his eyes, it's the phantom princess. The white night gown and her long golden brown hair.

"Ta..su..ke t..te.." she hardly muttered and lost consciousness.

Natsume caught her before she fell from the ground, swiftly carried her head on his lap. The light of the moon gleamed at them, dramatically creating a spotlight like radiance coming from the broken windows of the attic. He observed her face while tucking her loose hair away. He looked at her with amazement in his eyes.

This phantom princess is not as scary as what he heard from the rumors and gossips. Her face is just dirty because of some mud on her cheeks and on her forehead. He scanned her closed eyelids that he suspects covers a big pair of eyeballs. His sight then went to her cracked and pale thin lips. Neither her clothes were torn nor bloody, but just like her face, was full of dirt and mud. Before anything else will happens, Natsume held her shoulders and shook her gently to bring her consciousness back. The infamous phantom princess slowly opened her eyes, showing her big hazel orbs and blinking it for several times. All she can see is blurry red.

The fire caster felt something wrong with these hazel colored eyes, they were like drowning him to the unconscious world hypnotizing him by gazing at them. But as soon as he got his senses back, he quickly moved away from her and gave her a don't-come-near-me expression.

She moaned, putting her hand on her temporal while the other helped her rise to sit. "Who are you?" she asked the young lad posing a defensive stance about some inches away.

Natsume didn't answer and instead asked her the same question too. He used a colder and deeper voice to hide his uncomfortable feeling.

She moaned for the last time, still blinking her eyes to clear her sight. And then she narrowed her eyes, trying to know him but she didn't. "How did you find this place? Did you follow me?" she asked while crawling closer to him with her knees and palms.

Natsume can't speak, instead he moved back every time she takes an inch closer to him. He can't stand up without a reason of knowing why, Natsume remained on his butt moving away until his back is bumped on the wall.

"People like you should not be here." she muttered, climbing up to him and sniffing him like a dog.

"Go away!" Natsume shouted, pushing her towards the location she came from. He activated his Alice, making another fireball in his palm. He warned her not to move, but the phantom princess didn't mind and still she crawl back to him and stopped by the time she was just an inch closer to him. She sat in front of him with her butt on her feet, a proper sitting manner like every girl does.

She positioned her hand beside the fireball and cut the fire into half before it disappeared. "Please, don't burn this place. This is my home." she said and then scratched her face with the same hand because she felt itchy with the mud. Her face became reddish in an instant, letting Natsume know she had sensitive skin.

"Hey stop it. You're hurting yourself." Natsume said to her, reaching for her hand and stopping her from scratching her face.

 _He touched me._ The phantom princess blushed as her cheeks reddened. She stared at him with her sparkling orbs.

"What are you looking at, phantom princess?" Natsume asked, noticing the sticky gaze she is giving him. _Her eyes were beautiful; it's so big it's like eating me up._

The phantom princess gave him a confused expression, putting her finger under her lip and said, "Huh? Who's phantom princess?"

Natsume sighed. _So she didn't know she was called phantom princess by the students in the academy. Probably she doesn't know that she's on the headline of the school paper these past few days. Maybe, she didn't know too that she had a bad image. She's known to be a killer, a phantom, a ghost. I knew it, all those rumors were all fake. And I am right, this girl isn't a ghost. How come she could be ghost if she almost bleeds when she scratched her face? And if she's a ghost, my hand should pass through because she is supposed to be a spirit._

"Nevermind. Who are you by the way?" he asked, he became a lot easy after knowing the truth.

She was star stricken by the question.

 _ **Hime, promise me you will not leave the clock tower. Don't let anyone know who you are and that you exists. I have sworn to your parents I will protect their child. I know you deserve to live like a normal person. But your life is so special. You are special. So please don't ever let us worry. There will come a time that you will be free to explore the world and it's people. But this is not the right time.**_

"Uhm, my..." she was stuttering and fidgeting. Her eyes scanned all through the area and she saw a polka dot printed linoleum of the floor. "Polka dots." she said, and smiled uneasily at him.

Natsume lift a brow. "I don't ask for the print of the floor. I'm asking your name." he said.

The phantom princess began to sweat and kept pinning her stray golden brown hair off her face. Her hair is too long, she haven't got any hair cut since birth. "Uhm..."

Natsume waited for an answer. And he waited until he can no longer take it. "Hey, what now?" he asked her with a quite tone.

She was startled; her heart beat went fast because of the sudden noise. "You're the first person to step here, here in the clock tower. You're also the first one who came this near to me. You didn't scream at my face like everybody did, and I am glad you didn't. Because when someone like you sees me, they were screaming and then scurrying away. I don't know why they act to me like that. I don't even done anything wrong to them, anything at all. And you're the first person who touched me."

His eyebrows met. "So?"

She looked at him with soulful eyes. It was like pleading him not to hurt her, to feed her because she's starving. "Can you promise me you won't tell anybody, I mean everybody, every single person you know, your friends your sisters your brothers if had one, sensei or even to a non-living thing, that you saw me? That you met me? That you talked to me? That you touched me? Promise me you will never speak about me, about my existence."

Natsume just nodded. He was surprised how talkative this ghost was.

She gave her a nice smile. "Well then, I suppose you should take an oath to Luna."

He twitched his brows. _Is this girl normal?_ "Who's Luna?"

She pointed something behind him that he quickly turned at to. He saw the moon, and then realized that the Earth's satellite, the moon is also Luna. He slapped his head mentally. How could he be that idiot?

"Follow me, okay?" she said cheerfully. Then whispered something at him. "I made this oath myself, I don't really know why did I because I don't know where will I use it. But now I do."

Natsume rolled his eyes. Baka girl. "Fine."

"Now raise your left pinky."

"What?"

"I said raise your left pinky." she even demonstrated it to him. "Like this."

Natsume rolled his eyes again, sighing. "I know, I know." he then followed her.

"Say after me." she cleared her throat. "Luna san, I am here in front of you…with my pinky." he almost cracked a laugh at this, but maintained his composure. He followed everything she said. "I do solemnly swear that I will not say to anybody or anything, that I witnessed…uhm…" _I cannot say my name until we finished the oath._ "That I witnessed the girl with long brown hair and uhm, white dress today. I will never speak to anybody about her and will keep everything a secret forever." she said.

"I swear by Luna the moon, the comets and the constellations present this time, that I will always keep this oath in mind never taking it for granted. With my life I owe you now, I am finishing this oath with a kiss." she giggled.

Natsume was surprised after saying the last word. "What? A kiss?" he asked to her in disbelief.

"Yup."

"Do you know what a kiss was?"

She giggled again, what a cute. "Of course I do. Someone told me a kiss is a promise of everything. Enveloped with it is your trust, faith and your words." she said it plainly.

The phantom princess defined it very well. But a kiss is not done with two people who just met within an hour. It is not made with two people who were merely, still a stranger to each other. A kiss was done to someone you love. And, yes a kiss envelopes trust, faith and words but not exactly an oath. Those were all pertaining to someone you love a promise of everything you have been through but not a promise of a pinky to Luna.

She had misunderstood it all.

Natsume sighed once again. "I don't think we can kiss."

"Huh? Why not? The oath can't be done without it. And you have said it already." she whined.

"Ugh, how did I let myself be in this kind of situation." he fondled his temples but was startled when the phantom princess already got her lips on his cheek. He feels his blood rise to his cheeks and found them blushing already. She moved away quickly, she just gave him a smack.

"There! We're done!" she said, giggling. She looked like a kid but cute while giggling sweetly. A dense and innocent girl.

Natsume almost stopped breathing but regained his composure. He wiped the kiss with his hand harshly to erase the kiss totally. "Did I permit you to do that?" he glared at her.

"Yes, you did. When you finished the oath."

Natsume smirked. "Silly girl." he muttered. "Natsume. Natsume Hyuuga."

She offered her hand to him. "I'm Mikan." she stopped. "Mikan…S-Sakura." she said.

 **AUTHOR'S MEMO**

Hi! BH here!

Sooooo..does this story ring a bell? If it does, you might know that someone had already posted this story in 2013. I'm just reviving this from **Wynaut08** because she told me this is her first story ever in GAFFN and it's making her sad that she only did 9 chapters of it when she had 30 chapters in mind.

It's really unfortunate because this story had already gained quite a number of followers and the reviews were all good and motivating.

She had also forgotten about the whole plot and gave me the permission to do whatever I wanted in exchange of finishing this for her.

So, I will do my best!

Next Chapter will be posted tomorrow. Please leave a review.


	2. THE MYSTERY UNVEILS THE HALF

I disclaim Gakuen Alice.

 **THE SECOND CHAPTER**

 **THE MYSTERY UNVEILS THE HALF**

 **"The sweetest smiles hold the darkest secrets..."**  
 **― Sara Shepard**

A week had passed. It's been seven days since Ruka was appointed to the school clinic and is still checked in.

Natsume had regretted leaving his best friend alone with all those dangerous girls and let him be an alternative rope for their little game. After all he can strangle all of them with his own strength or for better suggestion, to burn them completely. But he has a reason why he can't lay a finger on them. He's not that unreasonable.

He visited him every day to see his health status and to give his best friend lectures and notes for each lessons he missed. Don't get him wrong, for the school works were not from him. They were from Yuu Tobita, their class representative. The guy had been in the position for years, given that Yuu really liked the job.

Natsume never jots down notes nor listens to the teacher. He is a natural class ditcher, an ignorant student. He can survive without listening to the class because of the simple fact he is born with high IQ level. To compare, he is more intelligent than anybody else in the class, it's just that he doesn't take his studies seriously.

What Natsume hates the most among his subjects is literature; those deep words, metaphors, idioms and the like. He is complaining with himself about why does literature authors have to put complicated words on their pieces which just makes them hard to understand. It's not like Natsume can't comprehend, but somehow he had a point on them making the readers a hard time to understand their works. He doesn't even know why he needs to study such.

Opposite to that of his best friend, Ruka cares a lot for both of their grades. To get to the point, Ruka cares for Natsume's moral character reference. Every students, even those in Alice Academy, need a certificate of good moral character to be able to graduate in the department. And since everybody knows that Natsume Hyuuga doesn't have "good" manners, his certificate might fall off a cliff. He's been reported to burn several fan girl's hair and other school's equipments, wrecked walls and ditches class. And not to consider, his latest offense, he entered the clock tower which was listed as a restricted area. Just a few more offense and he'd be commended to fail and remain in the middle school department for another school year, even if he can control his Alice superbly.

To put it simply, Ruka had lectured Natsume to stop using his Alice on other people to save the certificate.

"Here." Natsume placed the papers and workbooks from Yuu to the table beside Ruka's bed. He stayed on his feet while his arms crossed over his built chest.

"Thank you, Natsume." Ruka responded, laying half seated on the bed with a pillow supporting his back.

"How long are you planning to lay there?" he sarcastically said, giving him a familiar expression that he was used to see on him. Ruka cracked a manly chuckle, getting what he wanted to say to him. "Girls aren't allowed here, so I can't blame you."

"You can check in if you want." he added.

The middle school infirmary had two rooms, located at the opposite sides of the second floor of the middle school building. One for boys and the other one is for girls so basically, the opposite gender cannot come inside without permission. The patient can limit those who can visit him, and being in the clinic without the existence of those fan girls is the greatest way to have the peace in life Natsume and Ruka deserves.

"I'm going out tomorrow." Ruka murmured.

Natsume turned his back, aiming to the door. "Great. So you can cover for me for tomorrow's class."

"Natsume!" Ruka exclaimed. "Don't say you're going to skip Literature again?"

He just shrugged, pocketing his hands as usual then started to walk his way. "Well…yeah."

"But you're…"

"Shh!" Natsume said, stopping Ruka from continuing his sentence. "Don't worry too much, Ruka." he stated, reaching for the metal knob of the glass door and pushing it to make his way out of the infirmary.

Ruka sighed, muttering. "Ugh. Same old Natsume."

A week had passed. Seven days since he met her. Less than a hundred sixty eight hours since he left the clock tower and never came back. He didn't attempted to enter the tower again not because he is scared, but he just felt it's kind of inappropriate. After the night of him meeting her, the rumor about the phantom princess suddenly disappeared like it doesn't existed. He was quite doubting. She is a living mystery, one that he wanted to reveal by himself.

He remembered everything that happened that night while walking to the length of the corridor. Her lucid image crept into his mind. Her small feet, her muddy dress, her long golden brown hair up to her dirty face, pale thin lips and amazing amber eyes. He suddenly got goose bumps that he immediately tried to calm. He continued to play back his memory. From the oath until his first kiss. It was not a very big deal though. Natsume tried considered it nonsense, something like a kid just smacked at his cheek. But he can't remove the fact that he felt elated for it. He shook at his own thoughts.

What about if he go at South later after class? Or much better, to go there right now and skip class? The latter do sounds good to his ears. Smirking, Natsume turned around and walk to a different direction instead of the way to his classroom. Somehow he feels lucky that Ruka is not with him so no one could stop him from doing what he wanted to do. He can understand his best friend of course, but he just can't live without breaking a rule.

The fire caster sighed. It was like he was surprised at what he was thinking. The whole thing just came into his mind and he feels that he was tied in there and now he was being pulled, telling him to go there again.

Wandering inside a not-so-familiar forest is not easy. If you don't know which way to go, you'll definitely get lost. But it's seems that he knew the woods so well that he had arrived at his destination in just one try. He didn't played with a pebble or anything, but his own feet appeared like they have their own brains. He stood in front of the large and old wooden door for the second time around.

Enter.

It's seems like someone whispered a word to him that triggered him to open the door and took steps right in. After he opened the door, he saw a very different clock tower from the one that he saw before. The light engulfed the whole place allowing him to see how pleasant it was in the eyes. It was a nice view to see large wooden racks of books which when he first saw had dull colored books but now, radiant and new looking ones. The stairs were still the same, long and tiring to climb. But even so, he still climbed up hoping to see a figure he came there for.

Panting he was after covering up three fourths of the length of the stairs. His sweat drips from his forehead even so winter is approaching. Natsume wiped all of them, and continued his way. After some time he was already at the peak. Five more steps he can step on the flooring. Five, four, three, two and one. He scanned to the left, seeing nothing. He scanned to the middle, found no one. But when his eyes laid to the right, his heart beat faster as he saw a brunette laying unconsciously on the floor!

He scurried to the laying figure, she was like murdered with her position. Her long golden brown face scattered at every sides of her face and all around her. Body resting sideways with hands lamely fell half clenched on the floor. Knees were pretty bent and back slightly curved. She was still her since they first met. With the dirty white night gown, muddy skin and barefooted. She was like a corpse if you will see her now, for her skin is pale and as well as her lips. Closed eyelids and partly opened mouth. A transparent liquid was even seen leaking from her oral cavity! Or was it from somewhere else?

Natsume went closer to her, face still calmed and stoic even if inside he feels like worried. He poked her with his foot. She didn't moved. Is she dead already? He pushed her harder with his feet, making her turn to her other side. Still, she didn't respond. Shit, she's dead. Natsume bent down to her level, grabbed her shoulders and began to shake it harshly, fast and without any mercy. All to wake her up.

"U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U-U" came from her mouth as she began to open her eyes.

Natsume let go of her and pushed her away. "I thought you're dead."

"Awww." she moaned, slowly got up with her hand supported her to sit and the other caressed her shoulder. "You didn't have to shake me like that. You almost broke my bones!"

Natsume stood up, scanned her from her face up to her head. Nothing really changed from last week he first saw her. Even her dress is still as it was. He felt pretty disgusted at the idea which popped in his mind that maybe this girl is…not taking a bath.

"What?" she asked, noticing he stares at her for a while now.

"What exactly are you doing earlier?" he barked at her who is still sitting at the floor.

"I'm sleeping, isn't it obvious?" she replied, trying to get up but her knees became wobbly at the moment. The reason she lost balance and was about to fall. But she was quickly caught by the fire caster. For the how many times, they shared skin contact again. For some reason they liked it, but for some reason they wanted to separate as soon as possible.

"And what is that liquid on the floor? Is that…" Natsume glared at the mysterious transparent fluid on the floor.

The raven head's eyebrows suddenly met, as he began to feel awkward with what he said. He could've offended her bringing the liquid up into their conversation which he suspects were saliva and could make her embarrassed. The phantom princess became quiet as her head lowered right after what he said. Some of her hair followed and now her face was covered again with it. He stared at her, didn't know what to say. Should he apologize? Say sorry? But…Natsume never said sorry to anyone before, even to Ruka. The word does not exists into his pool of vocabularies.

She sniffed, and he heard it. The next thing she did was she motioned her arm and scrubbed her face with it. He can't actually see it, but he's quite sure she's wiping of something from her eyes. Then she sniffed more which made him irritated because he feels guilt. What is with her now?

"Hey, what's happening?" he said with cold and emotionless tone. He never wanted to sound so concerned since Natsume is ignorant to people's emotions.

She didn't replied but instead, she stopped sniffing but the wiping motion continued. Is she crying? Natsume bent down again, glared at her face which is still covered with her hair. He is pissed. He grabbed the arm she is using to wipe her face and forced to stop. He gave his strength to pull her hand away and he succeeded. Natsume then parted her hair off her face, and was surprised at her swollen cheeks and reddish eyes.

He stared at her with confusion. She gave her a woo-me look.

"Those are not from my mouth." she stuttered.

Yes, he had seen so many girls cry because of him way back then. He had seen so many swollen eyes and puffy cheeks that pleaded him to stay, to say to them what they wanted to hear. But for some explainable and expected reasons he ignored them all. He didn't told them to cry because of him. Natsume didn't commanded them to fall in love with him. He's not at fault why they cried. And for Kami's Sake, he never wanted any girls to love him. He did not dreamed to be chased.

Natsume became speechless. He don't know what to say or what to do. For once again, he was amazed by the phantom princess. She breathed in, and gave the young lad a nice smile to ease the tension between the both of them. She knew that she startled him with this act of hers.

"I'm so sorry you have to see me like this." her smile faded and wiped her eyes for the last time. "I-I..I just thought you have forgotten about me." she giggled.

He stood up quickly and take a step back. "Don't say…you waited…"

She stood up too, dusted her dress and cleared her face. "Yes, I did."

"You're crazy." he said.

"No, I'm not." she defended.

"Have you eaten?" he asked. She shook. "Have you taken a bath?" She shook. "Have you changed clothes?" She shook. "Do you even have clothes?" Oh, getting concerned now, are we?

She chuckled. "What kind of questions were that? Of course I do."

"Jeez." he covered his nose with his palm. "You smell already. Look at you. You're like a rug. And you're ugly."

She was quite shocked on the offending words that came out from his mouth. "Really?" she scanned herself. She twiddled the fingers of her toes, checked her dress, sniffed her skin, and her hair. "Hey, don't get me wrong. I have never done all of those just for this day."

"Then why are you still dirty and why are you still wearing the same dress?"

She giggled. "I'll explain later. Would you like to come with me to my house?"

He gave her a confused look. "I thought this was your house?" he could still remember the time when he used his alice to threaten her from the night they met and she said Please, don't burn this place. This is my home.

"Yes. I considered this as my house because I am always staying here, but I do have my own house at the other end of the Southern Forest." she explained. "So, are you coming?"

He just shrugged and started his way down by taking steps from the stairs. But when he have already started to climb down, he noticed that the phantom princess is not moving a foot. "What? Do you expect to get down by just staring at the stairs?"

She shook. "No, but we can teleport the way down."

Natsume gave her a questioning face.

"Yes, teleport." she went to him and took the steps which he had taken earlier then held his hand. At first he was hesitating. He is not used to his hand getting held by other person. So he pushed her hand away.

"Do you really need to touch me?"

She chuckled and retrieved his hands abruptly. "Of course. I can't possibly teleport you if I don't have any contact with you. Come on, I'll teleport us down."

"Why don't we teleport to your house directly?" Natsume complained, tired and dizzy.

"I want you to know how to get to my home when you want to visit me." the lady before him said.

"I can visit you at the tower. Since you're always hanging out there." Natsume was kind of surprised with what he said. _What visit are you saying!? Don't tell you have plans of visiting again?!_

She moaned. "No, I am not at the tower at all times. I have my schedule for going there. It stands as my school."

Natsume's eyebrow met. "Na? You said it's your home, then you're saying it's your school." he muttered a "Hn." and spoke once again. "You're so confusing. Are you sure you're normal?"

Not in a minute, Natsume and the phantom princess appeared in front of a big hedge maze. A hedge maze is an outdoor garden maze or labyrinth in which the walls or dividers between passages are made of vertical hedges. The maze was made to confuse people so they wouldn't be able to reach a very private or restricted area. The maze looks like those that can be found in Egeskov, Denmark. It is square, big and has a space inside. And that space contains the phantom princess' house. The hedge maze is really difficult to enter and solve for it needs special Alice to get to the middle.

"Ne, my home stands at the middle of this maze." The phantom princess said, hoping to kill the silence between them. They didn't talk to each other after they began to enter the maze. The fire caster did not respond to what she said. He just continued to follow her with where will she go. She waited for him to talk but her hope just died.

 _Nah, this guy is ignorant. I never met such. My onii-sans were a lot different from him. They were all gentlemen, talkative and fun to be with. I am not saying he is not fun to be with, but he doesn't talk too much. I wonder if he kept his promise? The one we swore about that night. He'd better be, because I made that oath when I was just a kid. Though like I told him, I don't know why did I made it._

 _Natsume Hyuuga._

 _I really don't know anything about him. I only met him last week, and maybe that is the reason why he does not talk to me that much. I really do understand, he might be uncomfortable being with me. And worst, he might not trust me. But still, he is with me right now. I waited him to come back and I thought he won't but look, we're together now._

 _This guy with cool raven hair and hot crimson eyes, I wonder what kind of person he is. Does he have a lot of friends at school? Nah, I doubt. But I can tell, he is kind. He haven't done anything bad to me at all. And I hope he wouldn't in the future. I am just so thankful he doesn't hurt me or shout at me like those students I met when I am roaming outside._

 _I know I am barred to roam and that was the first time I broke the rules given to me by my onii-sans and the princess shrine. I just can't help it, I wanted to have a glimpse of students in the academy. But I didn't expected they will be so harsh on me given I didn't do anything bad to them. Ugh. Even so, I am happy I gained a friend._

The phantom princess stopped in an edge, making Natsume asked her if she really knew where her house is. This made her laugh and made Natsume insulted. Then she explained to him that there is really no path that will direct them to the place. She said that every turns were all dead end. But this one that they ended up had a secret button, that no one can ever activate if they are not given a key.

"What are you talking about, Polka Dots?" Natsume said, using the first name she gave him instead of her real name. He just finds it too awkward to call her Mikan and he does not have a reason of knowing why.

It really didn't bother her if he called her that, because she was at fault why is he calling her that name now. For some reason she felt stupid and just let it out with a chuckle. But she insisted he should call her on her real name.

"Give me your hand." she told him, laying hers and offered it to him.

He raised a brow, kind of wondering. _What's with the hands? She likes getting skin contact._ He half-heartedly gave his hand, actually his index finger.

"Are you ready?" she said cheerfully with her dirty figure.

He rolled an eye and nod. In a blink of an eye, they were already in front of a white painted house with pink linings. It has two floors and a balcony on both of the floors, but the ground floor was bigger. It looks like a gigantic doll house, clean and green. **Not like the owner** , he muttered to himself. Its base is wood, only painted white. The screen door can be seen, with a nice and puffy mat before. There is also a rocking chair beside the door, with several pots of green and nonflowering plants. Those flowering were placed at the second floor's balcony, he saw as he looked curtains, almost alike with what she wears, can also be seen flapping with the cool wind surrounding the area. It will surely look nice inside.

"Hey." he poked her, staring at her house just like what he does earlier. She turned to him with a small smile plastered at her face. "Did you use teleportation?"

She shook innocently. "I didn't."

He was amused. If she did not, then what did she use? Does she have other Alice besides teleportation? Who is this girl?

"Look, I'll explain later. I'll explain why I am always dirty, I'll explain how can I teleport, how can I distinguish your fire, and anything else. But we should make another oath before I tell you something confidential. Bear with me, okay?" she giggled as she stepped on the two ladders on her way to the door of her own little home.

"Wanted to explain also about yourself? About who you are? Why are you kept hidden?" he said.

She half-heartedly nodded, not sure if she will really say those things to her.

He entered inside. Slowly stepping with his feet consecutively. A very nice and refreshing ambiance surprised him. There weren't lots of furniture in there. Only a pair of white sofa and a mirror table with a flower vase with nice pink carnation flowers standing in the middle. There were no any other decorations. No picture frames, no paintings, no hanging decorations found but a piece of clock. He looked up to the ceiling and found a ceiling fan and pair of light bulbs. He looked around, and found the stairs for the way to the second floor. Looking to the other sides he saw a door, maybe a way to the kitchen or anything.

"I'm just going to...take a bath." Mikan bid to him and made him sat into one of those sofas. Then she scurried up, yep to take her bath. The second floor must have her room.

He just can't sit there and do nothing. He gets bored easily. If you add it to a rule breaker, the result would be definite: he would roam around the house to entertain himself. He did not waste any time and stood up, went to the mysterious door he saw earlier. He wanted to know what room that door could have behind. As he got there he grabbed the knob and turned it open. It clicked and he pushed it. He expected it to hide a kitchen, but he's totally wrong. It leads to the outside.

"Hmm. No kitchen." he muttered. He pocketed his hands and started to take the stairs. The stairs weren't that long like at the clock tower and he thanked for it mentally. Then, he found there the balcony, and two doors. One fourth of the second floor was occupied by the balcony, the other one fourths was occupied by a small room with a label "Occupied". He suspects it was the bathroom because besides the label, he can hear rustles of running water from the outside. And the other half might be her real bedroom.

Natsume tried to open her bedroom, but failed. "I never thought she knew how to lock a door." he smirked with himself and just went down and outside, rode the rocking chair. Without ten minutes, the phantom princess showed before him and how he was starstruck with her appearance. Well, the dress isn't new but it was clean. Her hair was still looking like uncombed and feet still bare. But her skin do look nice, especially with that of her face.

"Clean now, aren't we?" he said.

She just nodded and came closer to him. A moment of silence engulfed the both of them until HE decided to break it.

"So, you said you're going to tell me everything."

Mikan was surprised, she didn't said she will tell him about her EVERYTHING. But she smiled instead, and sat onto the floor. He did not object, he let her sat on the floor while he occupy the chair. Very typical of him.

"We should execute the oath first." she muttered in her knees.

The surroundings became much colder than before since winter is near approaching and it's getting dark as the sun was setting and the sky was painted mixed colors of orange, yellow, blue and a bit of purple. The breeze is getting active too and harsh to the skin. Mikan is getting cold and began to hug herself. As of Natsume, cold weather isn't a problem to him since his fire Alice can warm his body up. Noticing the shivering brunette sitting beside and lower to him, he rolled an eye.

"You're shivering yet you still talk about your oath." he said and looked opposite to her, then smirked. "We can do it later, when she appears." Mikan looked to him with her ever huge eyes, a smile was ominous in her face. She gets it that it was the moon he was talking about. And she's glad he is still willing to do the oath with her.

The two of them enjoyed the silence together and waited for the moon to show up. With a cute smile on Mikan's face and a smirk for Natsume, the latter looked at his right, directing to the grassy ground and Mikan gazing in her twiddling feet. Natsume secretly activated his Alice, emitting a nice radiation of heat and gave it to the phantom princess. She was aware, and he was willing.

 **AUTHOR'S MEMO**

Sigh.

I've read Wynaut's last note for this chapter and it contained something about her crush. It's hilarious since with what I have recalled before, she tried to message him on facebook and got seenzoned. She was so infatuated with that guy back then. But two years had passed and had almost forgotten 'bout Mr. MIAL.

Anyways, let's call it a day and please review. It only proofread this chapter that's why I updated it as soon as I posted it.

Ja!


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